


I Bring Life

by dreamiflame



Category: The Sandman (Comics), Torchwood
Genre: Crossover Pairings, F/M, Jack Harkness Flirts, Kissing, The Many Deaths of Jack Harkness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-02 21:03:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21167849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamiflame/pseuds/dreamiflame
Summary: Jack Harkness. Time Agent. Captain of the Innuendo Squad. Torchwood Agent. The Man Who Can't Die.The man who flirts with Death, sometimes more than once a day.Death eventually starts flirting back.





	I Bring Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveradept](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/gifts).

> Happy Halloween, silveradept! I love these two, and it was very fun to write this!
> 
> Thanks to my beta for the help.

For all Jack’s brashness, and jokes about death, when it comes, he finds he’s afraid after all. “I kinda figured,” he says, and then the light flashes, and he cringes away.

Then he straightens, surprised, while the Daleks turn away from him and roll out the door. “They missed?”

“No,” says a musical voice behind him, and Jack turns to see one of the most beautiful women he’s ever had the pleasure to behold.

He also sees his body on the ground.

“Oh,” he says, because, yeah, that makes much more sense than the universe’s premiere killers missing him at point blank range. “At least I make a pretty corpse.”

The woman’s black lips turn up in a smile, and she offers Jack her hand. “So you do. Shall we?”

“I would have gone anywhere you wanted even before I died,” Jack says, and grins as he takes her hand. Her fingers are cool and smooth against his.

“So you’re Death, then?” he asks, as they move away from his body. “Wow, did my century completely have it wrong. No wonder the Egyptians worshiped you.”

He’s trying to make her blush, but all she does is smile at him, amused. Jack hasn’t had to work this hard in a while.

“Don’t strain yourself, Jack,” Death says, laughter in her tone. “I like you already.”

He grins, wide and still hopeful, then it feels like something grabs the back of his neck (wolf claws, or maybe wolf teeth), and drags his hand out of Death’s. Death’s mouth falls open in surprise, and then Jack is surging up from the ground, sucking in air.

He’s alive. He is most certainly alive. He was dead not four seconds ago, walking hand in hand with the truly drop dead gorgeous personification of Death herself, and now he is alive.

Jack’s heart beats hard against his ribs, and he hears the TARDIS start up. He shoves to his feet and runs, but he doesn’t make it in time.

The Doctor’s gone. Rose is gone. Even Death is gone, and it’s just him and the corpses. There aren’t even any Dalek hulks left.

Jack bows his head in sorrow.

~

The next time he dies, Death is standing there with folded arms. “What was that?” she asks.

Jack doesn’t even have time to shrug and smile at her before he’s back in his body, taking that first huge, gasping breath.

He doesn’t understand it, either, but he’s starting to get an inkling. Somehow, someway, he can’t die. Ever.

~

Death looks pensive more often than not when he sees her. They’re brief visits, usually, barely time to exchange a few words. So Jack tries to plan ahead of time what he’ll say.

Most often, he goes with a compliment on her clothes: Death, it turns out, has an incredible sense of style, no matter what century they find themselves in.

~

In 1897, Jack stays dead for ten whole minutes. He uses that time to recite a poem he’s been writing for Death for the last few years.

Death laughs. “You are not a natural poet, Jack.”

“Of course not,” Jack says, grinning. “I’m a highly unnatural poet. But you still like me.”

“Yes,” Death says, and her grin softens into a sweeter smile. “Yes, I do like you.”

He kisses her fingers as he feels the wolf’s teeth sink into his neck again. “Until we meet again, my sweet.”

Her laughter follows him back to life.

~

After a particularly nasty death, Jack keeps his eyes on his corpse, even though at this point he can sense when Death is near.

“This has to be a waste of your time,” he says, and he can’t keep the bitterness out of his tone. “Why do you come for me every time? We both know I can’t go with you.”

“Because it’s my job,” Death says, and takes his hand, squeezing his stiff fingers. “Because I like you. And because, like now, you need a friendly face after all that.”

He looks up at her, already feeling the wolf coming for him again. “Do you know why this is happening yet?”

Death’s mouth twists a little. “Love,” she says, and the wolf drags him howling away.

~

After Abaddon, Jack turns to Death.

“Well, that was bracing,” he says brightly.

Death shakes her head. “You’ve a cheerful nature, Jack.”

He grins, and she offers her hand. He takes it, something like regret filling his chest.

“I did it, then? I’ve really died?”

Death laughs, and they walk, suddenly somewhere else. “Oh, Jack. No, you haven’t really died. But you’ve drained away a lot of yourself, and you have to recharge.”

Jack makes a face at her. “I think you just called me a cell phone battery.”

She laughs again, and then they’re in a surprisingly normal looking living room. She lets go of his hand and sets down her umbrella in the stand. There are nylons over a chair back, and a surprisingly large fish in a comically small bowl.

“Tea?” she offers.

“Hypervodka?” he counter-offers, and she shakes her head with a smile. Jack seats himself at Death’s table, and watches her move around her kitchen.

“I have to say, I like your place,” he says. “This is nice. Cozy. Not at all what one would expect Death to live like.”

Death brings him a bottle and a couple of shot glasses. “I’m usually not what people expect.”

“That’s true,” he says, and pours for them both, tapping his glass to hers. “Salut.” He tosses back the drink and it burns in all the right ways, but his head stays clear.

Which makes sense. He doesn’t have a body to mess up with alcohol right now.

“You certainly weren’t what I expected, that first time.”

Death sips her drink, her warm dark eyes steady on his. “You weren’t what I expected either,” she says.

Jack puts his glass down and takes her hand. It’s strange to still be able to sit with her like this. They’ve never had this much time before.

“If I told you you have a beautiful body,” he starts, and Death laughs, puts her glass down and kisses him.

He’s back in the Hub before the wolf comes for him, watching Gwen watch his body. Death’s fingers hold his till the end, but they don’t need to talk right now.

~

“Why am I like this?” Jack asks the Doctor finally. The radiation sparks at his body, and his blood still hums from his rebirth after the electrocution.

Death had smiled at him, throwing him a wave as he bounced out of his body and was thrust back in. He hadn’t even had time to steal a kiss.

“Rose,” the Doctor says, and it resonates through Jack. “She absorbed the Time Vortex. She brought you back to life. Forever.”

Love, Death had said. Love made you like this.

Love, and all the energy of the Time Vortex. Love, and a human god who couldn’t quite control her powers.

Jack looks down at his hands, where he’s working to fix the radiation spike. Sweet Rose, who didn’t want to let him go.

Still, he has to ask. “Can she fix me?”

“She’s gone,” the Doctor says, and it’s no.

But so is Jack’s answer to his question. “Do you want to die?” asks the Doctor.

“I thought I did,” he says. He thinks of Death, of her smile, of the way she tastes when she kisses him, starlight and history and honey.

He wouldn’t have her if he didn’t have this life Rose had given him. If he hadn’t become a fixed point in time and space.

Jack smiles at the Doctor. “But then I see this lot out here, living their lives, and it’s fantastic.”

It’s the answer the Doctor would understand.

It’s not the whole answer.

~  
He sees Death a lot the Year That Never Was. Death frowns at him a little the first time.

“Destiny doesn’t like what you’ve done with your world,” she says.

“Destiny is very much more than welcome to come fix it,” Jack replies, and Death rolls her eyes at him. He kisses her fingers as he feels the wolf approach.

Funny how most people think of death as a wolf. Jack has come to think of life the same way.

“I’ll see you soon,” he says, and she smiles, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth as he goes.

**Author's Note:**

> So I looked up the Utopia discussion for this, but I didn't want to transcribe the whole thing word for word. I hope my summarizing works for you.


End file.
